New F4 are actors-turned-musicians withpebble-smooth chins and artful coifs (the “F” is short for “flower”). Yetthe boy band’s appearance last month on a patriotic children’s show caused a kerfuffle(混乱), and not just among fans. Some parents,already angry that the government had ordered them to ensure theirprimary-school-aged children watched the programme, complained that thefoursome were not appropriate role models for young boys. What lessons couldthey learn from them, asked one enraged blogger, except “how to use eyeliner andlipstick?”
Slim young male stars with a taste formake-up are enjoying a moment in vogue. Labelled“little fresh meat” by their fans, who consist mostly of women in their teensand twenties, they mimic（模仿） an aesthetic pioneered bysingers from South Korea and Japan. The most mainstream adopt faux-innocent personas vaguely reminiscent（使人联想的） of the way music executives once promotedJustin Bieber, a Canadian celebrity. Last year brought brief fame for the moreexperimental FFC-Acrush, a “boyband” whose members are women.
These groups reflect a growing interestamong wealthy male urbanites in preening and snappy dressing. In 2018 sales ofmen’s grooming and beauty products will grow nearly 8% in China, reckonsEuromonitor, a research firm. Irving, a twenty-something banker in Beijing, isone eager consumer: he puts on foundation and concealer whenever he wants tolook smart, saying that it helps boost his confidence and disguise some facialscars. His parents were alarmed at first but have had to accept it, because“they want me to be happy.”
The Communist Party looks undecided. InJuly an opinion piece in the Global Times, a nationalist tabloidwith government links, suggested that boys who spend a lot of time thinkingabout their appearance risk becoming “too delicate to deal with difficulties intheir lives.” Shortly after New F4’s performance, Xinhua, the state newswire, published aneditorial saying that the trend for “sissy（娘娘腔） men” was “a sick aesthetic” that “challengedtradition and order”. Yet this hyperventilation（过度反应） provoked an angry response on social media andearned a swift rebuke from the People’s Daily, the party’sprimary mouthpiece, which noted that “courage and responsibility” come in allshapes and sizes. A newspaper published by the party’s women’s union alsoobjected to such narrow-mindedness.
When all is said and done China’s leadersprobably find well-groomed and mostly well-behaved pop idols preferable to thebad boys celebrated in some rock and rap culture. As recently as January thetelevision watchdog was inveighing（抨击） against what it considered to be the corrosive（腐蚀性的） influence of hip-hop. Moreover “littlefresh meats” have become bankable ambassadors for all manner of brands hopingto woo young female shoppers. Irving reckons women are simply less tolerant ofmen who look “basically a mess”.
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